The War
by Mortisha Bloodfang
Summary: General Deidre Finn, the youngest General of Earths history, has finally gotten her wish: the chance for peace. Political gears and militant agendas hinder her dream, but the most unlikely of sources can grant her desire. Sucky summary I know.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! So, I had this idea in my head and it just wouldn't go away and was getting in the way of my other story. So, I wrote it down! I'm putting down this chapter and seeing how people like it, it's a bit different from my other story Silent is the Night but I hope you enjoy it. Here's a test chapter although I might just add more for fun. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1: General Deidre Finn**

"General!"

The Private ran up to the tall brunette as she gazed down at the lifeless eyes of a Yautja. Her trademark runed broadsword in her hand covered in neon green blood. Her normally immaculate uniform was torn and stained with blood from herself and her enemy. She didn't respond to the Privates approach, just stayed staring emotionless at the alien she'd killed.

The Private stood next to her and followed her eyes to the body than smiled enthusiastically and appreciatively.

"Good work General! You got that ugly son of a bitch good-"

Before he could finish his sentence she turned sharply to him, her sword at his throat in an instant. "Watch your tongue, Private. Have respect for the dead."

"B-but they're the enemy."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Even your enemies."

She held the sword at his throat for a moment longer to emphasize the point than sheathed it on her back strap. Leaning down she removed the Yautja's helmet and gently set it aside. Taking out her knife she gently grabbed one of the tresses removing a ring and pocketing it.

"Set up the pyres, Private Rhodes."

Rhodes hesitated for a moment. "General they're just dead Yau-"

"Private Rhodes!" She fixed a deadly cold stare on him rising up to her full six foot height.

He cringed than nodded running away to have the troops set up pyres for the bodies.

An hour later hundreds of large pyres were erected and the soldiers milled about setting the Yautja upon them and posing them with their arms straight by their sides, their weapons were laid around them, and dressed in their armor. Every one of them had coins laid upon their eyes, Deidre knew it was an old superstition from Earth's ancient history but she couldn't help but listen to her fathers words to respect her Clan's old ways. Deidre personally laid each one, kissing the foreheads of the fallen Yautja's saying a prayer over each before heading back to Rhodes. She knew Rhodes was watching her even as she gently removed rings from those she killed. Standing up she looked over the battlefield sighing at the loss of life.

Clearing his throat Rhodes spoke up shaking the General from her reverie. He couldn't understand her remorse from killing Yautja, they were the enemy. They were at war, and one didn't feel anything but contempt for the enemy, but she was different. She cried after every battle, over every loss, and although to others that made her weak he and the others loved her for it. She acted so cold and unfeeling, but she felt so much more than she gave off. After every battle or discovery of an annihilated colony she'd excuse herself at the next possible moment and weep in her quarters. It broke his heart every time he came by her door and could hear the slightest sob.

"We've gathered our dead and put them on the other side of the hill by base camp for transport back for burial-"

"Command wants us to leave the bodies, the graveyard and crematoriums are overflowing and it's too costly." She paused sighing. "I hate to leave them, but we don't have room on our transports for them. Command modified our ships to carry men, not bodies."

Rhodes clenched his fists. 'Those bastards.'

"They would just leave'm here?"

She nodded. "Set them with the Yautja, and take their tags to send home."

Rhodes stared at her. "Bu-"

"Do it."

He watched as she walked away and sat down on a nearby boulder. Gritting his teeth he nodded and did as he was commanded. When night had fallen all was ready, the night sky was clear and lit up by the planets three moons.

In formation the troops watched as their General stepped forward and lit the pyres. Taking a few steps back she stood and watching the bodies slowly catch fire and burn.

"Atten-tion." She barked and all snapped to attention saluting.

They stood watching, saluting both friend and foe.

The trip away from DB-824 was quiet and somber. Deidre Finn's group was only about a few thousand strong, and they lost about half their number in the surprise attack by the Yautja. They'd been sent by the United Earth Command to check out the colony on DB-824, it'd went silent a few days ago so Deidre and her group was sent. They were almost back to their transports when the Yautja emerged. They were a ragtag group of youths who'd stolen their parents armor and murdered everyone in the colony.

"General? I thought DB-824 was a designated neutral planet?"

"There _is _no neutral planet, we just call them that due to their large unarmed populations. The Yautja tend to go after us not our civilians."

"Than why did they?"

Deidre shook her head sighing and added the rings to the cord at her side that held around 54 rings, after adding the 16 new ones she marked with a red marker. Connecting the string back to her belt she looked at her men's curious looks. Rhodes was the most as he'd been serving with her since he joined about 5 years ago.

"They were young, unblooded."

"Unblooded?" A voice in the back of the group peeped out fearfully. She didn't bother looking for the face to the voice, she knew that they were well hidden. She understood the fear was shared, after today's fierce battle she knew they feared going against the other ranks. Most of them were new, never having faced the blooded adults and Deidre envied their innocence of the experience.

"They may have been large and seemingly adult, but they were the equivalent to teens. Unblooded means they haven't completed their trial to become full fledged members of their respective Clans."

"So…we just murdered children?"

Silence followed the statement filling the ship.

"We didn't seek them out nor did we know until after. Yautja children at that age are filled with aggression and are very impulsive. Do _not _think that you murdered them. Find glory in their death, that will honor them as they would wish to be honored."

Deidre hoped she eased their minds as the announcement they were docking with the main ship sounded over the intercom. Standing up she watched her men shuffle around grabbing their gear and fidgeting in their seats eagerly awaiting landing. Not five minutes later they docked and everyone started filing out, some running to greet those waiting on the landing for them. Deidre smiled softly at their cheerful faces, so different from before and quietly made her way out of the hangar trying not to notice she didn't have anyone to greet her.

"General Finn, please report to the Command Counsel chambers. General Finn, ple-"

Walking to her quarters she ignored the announcement in favor of dropping off her bag and getting a change of uniform. She wasn't sure why they couldn't just wait until she'd at least gotten cleaned up and rested before calling, but since they weren't considerate to her she wasn't going to be considerate to them. Undressing and hopping into the shower she sighed happily as the blood, dirt, and grime slowly came off her body and was whisked away down the drain. She wanted this war to be over, 57 years of war with brief periods of peace stretched out in between and she'd only been alive for 34 of them and fighting for 17. Her whole world was fighting and death, all she wanted was a family and a quiet place to live out her life. At the very least, she didn't want to be alone anymore having to come back to the ship with no one to greet her, and go to bed with no one to hold her and make her world right. She wanted someone to love, but no one would love her. The entire fleet knew of her only as their hero or as an ice queen, she kept her emotions in check to keep her men alive but it seems no one else saw how much pain she was in. Those Youngblood's for example, they saw ugly alien creatures, the enemy, but she saw someone's child and a life that hadn't yet lived. Exiting the shower she dressed in another uniform and attached the rings to them thumbing them like one would rosary beads, but she said a prayer of forgiveness for everyone as their names remained forever imprinted on each ring.

Thirty minutes later she found herself in front of the Command Counsel chambers not even caring how she'd gotten there. Everything was a blur to her these days anyways, all the pleasantries and no emotion, and an endless stream of loneliness and pain that she just wanted to block out. Walking inside she was greeted by her fellow generals and some diplomats as well as several screens with Counsel members on them.

"Ah, General Finn! Good to see you how-"

The pleasantries of the diplomats, Generals, and Counsel members floated into one ear and out the other she ran on auto pilot nodding, shaking hands, and thanking them in kind. She hated this, she hated all this pretense and the lying, and she hated the politics most of all. They all heralded her as a hero and congratulated her on her recent "victory," and commenting on how awestruck they felt to be in the presence of the youngest General in Earth's history. She was no hero, no awesome force, she was Deidre. A 34 year old woman with long wavy brown hair, blue eyes, and a curvy built body that still looked and functioned like that of a 24 year old thanks to the wonders of modern medicine. She never felt so old, so worthless, and most of all she felt used. Her accomplishments were only excuses to keep fighting, they'd only made it once to having a working peace, but every victory made them cocky thinking they could just kill all of the Yautja.

Unlike her compatriots she still remembered how they got into this war, all those years ago at the beginning of all this it only took a colony on the outreaches of human and Yautja space to shoot down one of their ships and murder all aboard than torture and kill a pregnant female and her young pup. Ever since it's just been an endless war that's made no headway, and both sides were suffering immense casualties.

"Forgive my bluntness, but the Counsel called me?"

The small group quieted and turned serious some shocked by her statement others completely unphased. General Steele cleared his throat as everyone took their seats around the rooms center circular table.

"Always to the point as usual, General Finn. One would think you'd take more enjoyment in your accomplishments. I mean after all, you lead our finest troops and you yourself have killed an impressive amount of Cra-."

"General Steele, the point please. I'm very tired and wish to get some rest soon."

The room was deadly quite as Steele glared at her for the interruption. She was unaffected, her eyes coldly regarding everyone around her in indifference. She wasn't called ice queen for nothing.

"Careful General, that was almost rude. You wouldn't want me to take offens-"

Her eyes narrowed agitation clear. "General Steele, if the Counsel has a reason to have called me after a mission than it should be said immediately. Your political games are of no interest to me so take your useless threats elsewhere to someone who cares."

Steele clenched his fists, eyes alight with anger.

"Why you bit-"

"That's enough! General Steele, General Finn has every right to be annoyed. Now, calm yourself."

The President of the Counsel cut in leveling a stare at Steele.

"Apologies, Sir."

Seemingly satisfied he turned to address Deidre. "We have heard of your recent engagement with the enemy on DB-824. Were there any survivors in the colony?"

She shook her head. "All inhabitants were killed in their homes in the night. We assume this as there were few signs of struggle all seemed to have been taken by surprise."

"Who did this?"

"A group of juveniles, I would not hold this against the Yautja Clans as they were basically teens and most likely stole the armor and weapons from instructors or family. The Yautja would be shamed."

Murmurs slowly arose in the room.

"Crab lover." General Steele muttered to himself a few others nearby having heard him nodded in agreement.

"Sir, I suggest we use this as a bargaining chip for another treaty. We can't sustain this war, both us and the Yautja have lost so many generations and I know that I'm not alone in this, but my men are nothing but teens freshly out of boot. I believe the fact that a group of juveniles indiscriminately slaughtered a whole colony will get them to agree to talks."

"What makes you think that?"

"Yautja value honor, respect, and tradition highly in their society. I believe that this incident will appeal to these values in a way that will enable peace. If unblooded males start taking up fighting as if they're adults than Yautja culture could very well be in jeopardy."

She could feel the stares and accusations from everyone in the room. She knew she wasn't very well liked due to her fascination for Yautja and peace, but the only thing that mattered to her was if the Counsel President heard her. She would fight if they so wished it, but above us she strived to be the voice of reason so that peace, long standing peace could be achieved.

His answer seemed to take forever when it was most likely a matter of minutes.

"You're right, General Finn. This war can not be sustained, my predecessors would wish it to until the alien threat as been eliminated but the fact of the matter is that it's a impossible and peace is the only way. I've already started up talks with the alien leaders and they've agreed to house a diplomatic party aboard one of their ships. I'm sending a group of delegates that are trained in the Yautja language an-"

Steele stood up forcing his chair back slightly. "Sir, please reconsider! They'll only end up dead like the last group!"

The President glared at him. "If you'd let me finish General Steele, that is why I'm sending the delegation with a small security contingent. Generals Finn and Steele, you will lead this contingent made up of 30 members half from each of your men."

Deidre felt her heart race as her eyes widened. "Sir, I must object. I am honored that you would put me on this assignment, but I must decline."

He raised an eyebrow. "General Finn, you have been a strong voice for peace for as long as I've known you. Why do you wish to decline this assignment that's the culmination of your efforts?"

"I beg your forgiveness, but my presence I believe will only hinder negotiations. I'm well known amongst our men and theirs as a Yautja Killer, and I do not want that reputation to destroy possibly our last chance at peace."

"I understand your objections, but you were requested personally by the Yautja Elders themselves. General Steele will be there to protect the delegation and your men will be assigned to protecting you as their first priority and the delegation second."

She bit her lip and nodded slumping in her seat slightly in defeat. "Fear not, General Finn. Choose and prepare your respective men you live within the hour."

"So soon?"

"Yes, General Finn. The Yautja ship hailed us thirty minutes before you arrived and is waiting for you. This Counsel is hereby adjourned."

Deidre stood and slowly walked out in the crowd trying to ignore Steele's canary eating grin. She knew he was loving the opportunity to see a Yautja gut her during this mission and ruin their chances at peace. It would be a win-win situation for him. Taking a deep breath she steadied herself and quickly left to her room picking up a pre-made bag and set out towards the landing by where her men were already lined up gear in hand having apparently been given a summons already.

"I need fifteen of you, the rest can go and enjoy some R&R until further orders reach you."

Walking down the line she picked her best men, including the new Corporal Rhodes, she smiled at his regained rank. Dismissing the others she waited until they were gone to address the remainder.

"No longer on suspension, Corporal?

He smiled largely and saluted. "Feels good to hear you say that, General. Say it slower." She laughed softly and rolled her eyes. He always knew how to make her laugh and break through her shell.

"Grab your bags and follow me. We're strictly security for this diplomatic delegation, so I will not tolerate any horsing around or fighting amongst yourselves _or _with our hosts. I _will _break up any fights, no matter how they started or their significance. _Don't make me play Mother. Understood?"_

"_Yes, Ma'am!"_

_Nodding she signaled them to follow her and joined with the delegates and Steele's group aboard the transport. Strapping in she took a deep breath as they took off traversing the short span of space between their ships. Looking our the porthole she saw the Yautja ship in its full glory, it was sleek and shaped almost like a giant flower bud, except not as pretty and used for far less benevolent purposes. She'd seen these sorts of ships quietly appear in the upper atmospheres and drop waves of pods and ships into the ground overwhelming bases. Shaking her head to clear her mind of the memories she focused on the task at hand. _

_Peace._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Diplomacy**

The diplomats chattered excitedly and the soldiers milled about clutching their weapons. Her men were beyond nervous, they'd never seen a Yautja ship up close before, and this group except for Rhodes had never seen an adult Yautja. She weaved through the ranks comforting them with a touch or a look before moving onto the next. Satisfied with their albeit temporary calm Deidre made her way to the door as they began to land.

"General Steele, would you take point?"

Steele paused and roughly shoved his way to her through his men pausing every now and than to glare or sneer at them.

"My dear General Finn, it would honor me greatly if _you _took point. After all, they are such _noble _and _honorable _creatures. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to see you."

He flashed her a grin that made her physically sick as the door lowered into a ramp. She silently motioned for her men to flank her and for the head delegate to step forward with her. Taking a deep breath she composed herself and slowly stepped out onto the ramp wishing she hadn't brought the rings.

The ship was dark, hot, and humid. The floors were metal grates with lights shining up from underneath giving the room a soft glow, the walls were bare except for a column every now and than (especially near doors) that had red writing scrawling up them, the walls were made of a smooth metal that almost seemed to look like pure black marble even though it wasn't. The docking bay was enormous filled with ships of all sizes looking like the large ship that housed them. From above it looked like a giant predator mask, the two prongs that stuck out form the side being the 'cheeks' almost giving it a trident look, and from the side it looked a bit like a flower. The air was thick and she quickly found it hard to breathe, taking in a few gulps of air her bio filters that she had implanted in her ages ago kicked in slowly making the air less and less alien to her lungs. Turning slightly to the head delegate she saw his face turning purple as he started to gasp. Sighing she quickly put her portable bio-mask on him not wanting to make their first impression to the Yautja Elders be that of a dead delegate. Holding it above his face she waited a moment for it to attach to his face in a near vice grip covering his mouth and nose slowly adjusting like hers had been. They'd stolen the technology from dead Yautja in the early years of the war, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she was one of the first in line to test out the technology when she was young and arrogant. It was tempting back then to be the first to try the bio-filter that like the bio-mask that followed allowed the wearer to breathe in any environment by transforming it into their native air. Getting back to the task at hand Deidre signaled to Rhodes to put on their masks as well and to give their spares to the rest of the delegates.

Turning back to the task at hand she walked down the ramp and stonily took in the crowd waiting for them at the end of the ramp. Several Elders, Arbitrators, and Ancients adorned in their various styled armors with red capes adorning their shoulders and masks attached to their hips. The usual mesh, bracers, and other such armor was there as well, but Deidre felt awed to be in the presence of such respected members of Yautja society. She only hoped that the delegates were as versed as she was in Yautja culture that they wouldn't insult them. Deidre had infiltrated Yautja ships with uncanny success throughout her career in the Marines or United Earth Forces (UEF) to know that although most of the Yautja who were assembled seemed unarmed they most likely were, and that those with the status of Honored Warrior and above were not to be trifled with. In all her years in the service, she'd only ever managed to kill one Elder and she barely succeeded in that venture; of course that was also seven years ago when she was much younger. She felt her age creeping up on her and shook her head to regain focus on current events.

Behind the leaders thousands of Yautja stood watching, and she knew they were staring at her and not anyone else in her party. She refused to look at any of them rather preferring to concentrate on the delegates and her men. For once since she'd gotten them, she wished she hadn't had bio-filters implanted in her airways. What she wouldn't give for a bio-mask to hide her face from the stares burning into her skin. She kept her eyes relentlessly glued on the delegate as he approached the leaders praying that he didn't screw this up and beginning to think of an exit strategy…just in case.

The delegate bowed slightly at his waist to the Ancient in front of him and Deidre couldn't stop herself in time to prevent the sharp intake of breath at his mistake causing some of the elders and others to look at her. She started quietly thumbing the rings at her waist keeping her face as emotionless as possible.

"Gentlemen," Deidre almost groaned in pain from his disrespectful greeting, and that he wasn't addressing them in their language. They were Elders, Ancients, and Arbitrators the most respected amongst their kind, and they weren't wearing their masks which meant they couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but they heard him. They heard his pompous attitude, his superiority complex, and his disrespect towards them and the crowd behind them started to growl, flare their mandibles, and narrow their eyes at the man.

Moving quietly over to Rhodes she continued to watch the scene as she whispered into his ear. "Corporal, I'm going to diffuse this situation and I need you to watch my back."

He nodded. "Should I watch out for Steele's men or the Yautja?"

"Let me deal with the Yautja, you deal with Steele."

Taking her place a couple of steps away from the delegate she watched on ready for the worst.

"It's my utmost pleasure to meet you and your people. My name is Jean-Peal Marquis de Viera II."

His nasally, whiney, and pompous tone was grating heavily on her nerves, but she could tell it was even more so for the group he was addressing. She never felt such shame and embarrassment so much in her life as she watched Jean continue his pompous greeting that she willfully tuned out and saw the Elders disgusted faces.

She waited for the inevitable, for she knew it was inevitable that it would happen, and as luck would have it it happened. Finally, one of the Ancient Elders roared and drew his wrist blades swinging them to take off the pompous idiots head. In a flash, her broadsword was out and intercepted the blow deflected it harmlessly to the side, quickly before he could recover she took Jeans place in front of the Yautja and threw him into Rhodes waiting arms who in turn tossed him and everyone else into the dropship.

Keeping her sword at the ready she addressed the angry Yautja who were arching their backs flaring their mandibles at her.

"_Venerable Elders, I beg your forgiveness for my peoples arrogance."_

The bay went quiet as she spoke in their tongue perfectly. Pausing for a moment she regarded them and slowly put away her sword, bowed deeply showing her neck to them, and than proceeded to kneel staring down at the floor keeping her neck showing.

"_Forgive me as well, Venerable Elders for my trespass. I am duty bound to prevent any harm coming to those under my protection. I never wished to raise my weapon against you, but my honor demanded that I do so."_

The Ancient looked at her. _"How did you learn our language, Pyode Amedha." _There was no question, just a demand.

"_I can not say the specifics of how I came across it, else I would be a bad blood, but war teaches one many things."_

There was a long uncomfortable pause.

"General Finn! What are you-"

She didn't move, but her words were powerful. "Silence, General Steele!"

"Do you take responsibility for your peoples actions today?" The Ancient spoke in perfect English his voice a gravelly base giving off his age.

"Yes." There was no hesitation.

"General!"

"Corporal Rhodes! Speak again and I will cut out your tongue!" Her words were like venom that made all shiver. The humans in fear, the Yautja in delight.

"Are you valuable to your people?"

"Yes." Still no hesitation. _'I am their _Hero _after all.'_ She thought bitterly.

She felt a clawed hand lift up her chin forcing her to look up into the Ancients face.

"What is it that you want most in life?"

"Peace."

"You did not answer me, Pyode Amedha."

"I only want Peace." She spoke unafraid and felt the loneliness creep back up on her.

The Ancient stared at her for a long moment his amber eyes burning into her icy blue.

"_We forgive your trespasses, and your peoples arrogance. You shall be shown to your rooms, and may your people learn respect or it shall be taught to them."_

She nodded and stood up bowing to him deeply once more.

"_Thank you, Venerable Elder. Your wisdom shines down through the ages lighting up the path Paya has lain."_

She saw his curious stare and the shock in all the faces surrounding her. Turning she started her way back up the ramp to gather her things.

"_You honor us with your words, and presence Deidre Finn. We will speak more during your stay." _She stopped for a brief moment and glanced behind her, all of the Yautja were staring at her, but their faces weren't that of murderous intent. They seemed to be looking upon her as if she was a prize to be gained.

Walking into the drop ship trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that crept up on her Deidre sought out Rhodes. Towards where the delegates had seated themselves in the ship she saw him and her men keeping them in their seats, some by force.

"Thank you Corporal Rhodes, inform General Steele that our hosts are waiting to show us to our quarters. Take the delegation with you. Jean-Paul, I will be speaking to you later. Let's go."

Jean-Paul nodded quickly following the rest of the delegates, his face white and body still shaking from his experience with the Ancient.

Seeing Steele unhappily take up the rear Deidre went forward taking point, she shook her head slightly at Rhodes who'd waited for her at the top of the ramp. Leading them down the ramp to the Elders she bowed deeply and addressed the Elders.

"_Venerable Elders, we're ready."_

_They nodded and walked towards a set of nearby doors, all the Yautja in their way making a path and banging their right fists to their chests bowing their heads. They twisted down halls, rising and falling in elevators, and stopping periodically for the next hour dropping people off at their designated rooms and instructions on how to get to where they needed to go. Finally, Deidre found herself alone with the Elders and several Honored warriors as they moved further and further away from the corridor the rest of her fellow humans were assigned. She began to feel a bit nervous when they rose a couple floors in the elevators, for she wasn't sure what else to call them, and came out on a floor that was full of Yautja garbed in only their loincloths, and in a few cases nothing at all. She averted her eyes from those few without any clothes on and refused to look at any of the males around her as they stopped and watched her passing. A few she could've sworn were puffing themselves up to impress her, but she was sure that was her ego talking. There was no way any male no matter the species fancied her she'd learned long ago that women of her caliber died lonely deaths, and as much as she wished it were so she knew she was no different. At last they came to a door seemingly in the very middle of all the Yautja quarters on the deck and the Elders turned around and motioned to the door, one opening it for her. _

"_Deidre Finn, you will stay here." The Ancient spoke, handing her a data pad like all the others he'd handed out to her fellows that registered in her language and would give her directions and translations if needed. _

"_Venerable Elder, I do not mean to be ungrateful or rude, but why am I separated from the others? I need to be nearby for my men and the delegates."_

_The Ancient looked at her than nodded to the doorway, not answering her but his eyes she found suspicious. They weren't malicious, but he was definitely planning something she just couldn't figure out what._

_Bowing deeply she started to walk into her quarters when he laid his hand on her shoulder giving her pause and making her turn around._

"_Deidre Finn, you were separated because you are an Honored warrior and should be with other Honored warriors. To have left you below even the Youngblood's would have been dishonorable."_

_She frowned softly her brows slightly knitting together. "Venerable Elder, forgive me, but it would not have been a slight to me as it would've been my preference. I didn't realize I was viewed so highly by your people. Thank you for your consideration, it is most welcome and unexpected." She bowed deeply putting a hand over her heart in a human gesture to attempt to show him how much his consideration meant to her. _

_There was a pause after that, as the whole deck seemed to be waiting on baited breathe for the next shoe to drop._

"_Deidre Finn, do you have a mate?"_

_Her eyes widened, well she certainly wasn't expecting that question. "No, but I don't understand why-"_

"_Do you have any males that your are interested in taking as a mate here or on Earth?"_

"_No, but Elder why-" She felt panic start to slowly rise within her. No, she didn't want him to go down this path it was too painful. She didn't want her hopes risen only to be crushed._

"_Would you ever take an alien mate? A Yautja mate?"_

_She didn't respond, she bit her lip and turned away from the Ancient. The sadness, and loneliness crept up on her and her shoulders dropped as she closed her eyes taking in a few deep breathes to try and prevent any tears or breaks in her voice. Purring started to fill her ears, she could only guess one of the Yautja in the crowd had started up because of her scent. She almost cursed out loud realizing that they could smell her moods, opening her eyes she looked out at the crowd to see who was purring and gasped._

_A tall Yautja in the front of the crowd was purring outright and unashamedly, he was the deepest and purest black she'd ever seen, he was large and built more so than most of his fellows. Her eyes wandered over his form and she couldn't resist how his body called to her, and how his purr seemed to calm her. She relaxed without realizing it as her mind forgot about everything but him, not even the Ancients curious clicks could rouse her from her haze. The male seemed to have noticed her scrutiny and stood up straighter standing so she could see all of him with no effort whatsoever. _

'_Delicious.' Her mind whispered and she took a few steps towards him her body swaying seductively on its own. She stood in front of him gazing into his bright, burning Amber eyes and felt herself falling deeper into his seductive spell. Other purrs had joined his before she lost herself in him, but his was the only one that struck a cord deep inside her. That deep base masculine purr that filled her mind with calm and made her core ache. Leaning forward her eyes started to close as she was surrounded by his otherworldly scent, he smelled of sweat, jungle, earth, metal, and blood. _

_His scent made her want to touch him so much, she hummed appreciatively and reached out slowly to touch his chest. _

"_General Finn!"_

_The outraged cry made her gasp and return to reality and yank back her hand that was mere centimeters from touching his naked flesh. Turning she saw the one person she didn't want to have seen her in this situation._

_General Alexander Steele._

_Shame filled her at his look of complete disgust._

"_Your men wanted to see you for instructions and Jean-Paul's waiting for your talk with him."_

_He didn't need to say anything, his look did the talking for him. Not looking at any of the Yautja around her she practically ran away, but didn't get past General Steele who roughly grabbed her arm forcing her to stop and make her cringe in pain. He leaned in with a sadistic grin on his face as he spoke quietly into her ear._

"_I always knew you were a fucking Crab lover." She turned away from him and attempted to leave only to have his grip stop her. "Don't let me stop you sweetheart, go have your fun. I'm sure the boys back home would love to have a little pet to experiment on."_

_Bile rose in her throat at the thought of a child screaming as they poked and prodded him._

_He chuckled darkly. "No wonder you want peace, you want some alien cock in you. Well darling, if you wanted cock so bad why didn't you just ask? I'm sure one of your men would be happy to oblige. I wouldn't mind helping you with your…need if you were a good girl." _

_She looked at him with disgust and managed to free her arm making a quick retreat down the hall. Looking down at the pad, she sent a message to Rhodes to meet her in the arboretum as she followed the pads instructions to get there herself. Sooner than she could've hoped for she was at the arboretum amidst a jungle clearing filled with chirping and various other simulated night sounds as she stared out at the vastness of space around them. She couldn't believe she let herself lose control like that, she'd never acted to wanton in her whole life, and to be discovered in such a position by Steele was beyond humiliating. _

_The Ancients questions had started to make her suspicious after he'd given her the honor of being on that particular deck. Could she ever choose a Yautja for a mate? She found that she wasn't disturbed by the thought of being with one of their males, but rather shaken by how eager they all seemed to be for the answer let alone her attentions. That male, she wished she had asked his name. _

_She gasped and realized that she'd run off before properly dismissing herself from the Elders presence. Her day just wasn't going well. _

"_General Finn!"_

_Turning around without bothering to stand up off the ground she saw Rhodes running up._

"_Corporal, I was given the honor of having quarters with the Honored warriors so if you wish to see me you must tell me on the data pads and I will either give you permission or you will meet me here, understood?"_

_He furrowed his brow in confusion._

"_You are not considered to have the same rank as me so that means you must have permission to come up to my quarters, because without it they will harm you for presuming to be equals with them."_

_He nodded, eyes slightly wide with fright as the picture formed in his mind as to what they would do to him._

"_I have no current orders for you except to take care of the delegates, if Steele's men aren't around or already escorting a lone delegate than you are their escort. Understood?"_

"_Yes, Ma'am!" He saluted crisply and than gasped as two Yautja approached. "General-"_

_She nodded at him to relax and calm down feeling her old self again. She recognized the Yautja immediately, one was the Ancient and the other was the black male who was now clad in all of his armor weapons included. Deidre couldn't help but feel he did it to impress her, and she almost hated to admit it even to herself but she was impressed. His armor was simple, but had various trophies, scratches, and marks where she could tell it had been repaired. _

_Bowing deeply when they reached her she tried to stay composed while in the presence of Rhodes and the enticing male. The Ancient inclined his head respectively and the black male strongly tapped his chest with his fist bowing to her._

"_Venerable Elder, I was not expecting to see you again." She spoke strongly, but her body shivered as black male posed for her again._

"_Deidre Finn, you did not answer my question."_

"_Forgive me Venerable Elder, I meant no disrespect. My compatriot caught me off guard, and I was unprepared for his comments nor my reaction to…" she stared at the male next to the Ancient trailing off._

"_Cetanu." _

"_Cetanu…"She spoke his name trying it out on her tongue as if tasting him as well. It tasted like her Clan's favorite drink that left a path of warmth as it slowly traveled to the stomach. It was her favorite, one she could never get enough of, and she was starting to feel the same towards Cetanu._

"_What is your answer?"_

"_Yes…if I found one that I found deserving and honorable, I would take him as a mate."_

_She heard Rhodes gasp and ignored him entranced by Cetanu's presence, and was even unfased as the Ancient growled at Rhodes making him whimper._

"_I am giving him to you as a guard during your stay, as a gesture of goodwill and security. He will be with you at all times so as to ensure your safety. Do you agree?"_

_She kept her gaze on Cetanu and outstretched her hand towards his chest stopping herself mere centimeters from his armor. She flexed her hands debating, she wanted to feel his skin…_

"_I would be honored, Elder…will he listen to me?"_

"_Yes."_

_Clearing her throat she got a hold of herself and nodded bringing her hand back to her side._

"_General, Jean-Paul's waiting for you."_

_Nodding she turned to the Ancient and bowed deeply to him. "Elder, I must take my leave. Thank you for my escort"_

_He nodded accepting her polite dismissal as she signaled for Rhodes to follow her. Quickly bringing up the path in her data pad she made her way downward into the belly of the ship where her party was. She knew this trip was going to be hell, she'd been alone for so long and now amongst those who seemed so much like her Clan she found herself wanting a man. She hardly noticed Rhodes struggling to keep up with her fast paced walking almost running in his efforts to try and speak to her. Cetanu followed with no effort his long legs keeping him a step behind her with no effort. _

"_General! What was that all about?"_

"_Nothing." She snapped. "I should've gone back to my Clan when we stepped onto the main ship. I was a fool for coming here."_

_Rhodes looked at her confused. "I don't understand Gene-"_

_Deidre stopped in her tracks and rounded on him growling. "If you knew anything about me than you would know that Berserkers always go back to the Clan every two years. I didn't return this last time."_

"_How long ago was that?"_

"_Two months ago." _

_He furrowed his brow in confusion. "How are you being effected so quickly?" _

_She shook her head sighing continuing to walk in a calmer pace than before so Rhodes could walk beside her without any effort. _

"_It wears away quickly after the two year mark."_

"_So, what does this mean? I mean what will happen?"_

"_I'm not sure, I've never been late to going home, but if need be I'll ask the Elders to drop me off at my Clan's planet."_

"_Are you sure that's wise? I mean what if the treaty falls through? They'll know you live!"_

_She shrugged ignoring his incredulous look. "Don't think they'd mind too much."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Unraveling Emotions**

~Several weeks later~

Jean-Paul stormed into his quarters the rest of the diplomats, Steele, Rhodes, and Deidre not far behind. He was fuming and after spending the entire day stuck in a room for the negotiations and Deidre was at her limit for political maneuverings and nonsense of any kind. Jean-Pierre had done much better than she had expected and handled himself with much more decorum than she believed him capable of especially after his terrible introductions to the Yautja previously. After over 10 hours of negotiating she realized that she'd misjudged the man, although he was pompous, filled with hubris over all his achievements throughout his career she knew now that he wanted what she did.

Peace.

She sighed watching as he paced the room angrily and quietly fixed herself a drink from the bar that was set up by his staff and nursed her drink watching. Steele stood for a moment than made his way to the bar fixing himself something as well leaning against the bar next to her with glazed eyes. Rhodes seemed to be taking the failed day much better than she expected, she was relieved and delighted when he calmly took a seat and watched the pacing man. All eyes fell on Jean-Paul as he paced wondering exactly what he made of the situation.

Steele grunted setting down his drink loudly catching their attention.

"You can't be thinking of giving them what they want." His voice was harsh, tired, and angry cutting through the quiet.

Jean-Paul narrowed his eyes angrily. "Of course not, do you think I'm stupid?" He practically hissed back. "If we concede, we might as well bend over." Steele's face contorted in disgust his ire rising to match Jean-Paul's.

"I say we just leave and kill the fucking crabs like we did before." He gestured to all around them and continued. "We've carried on this charade long enough."

Jean-Paul snorted and rolled his eyes. "Because that was going _so_ well for us." He said sarcasm dripping from his every word.

Rhodes sensing the situation was going to get out of hand stood up and held up his hands in a hopefully calming gesture. "Come on now guys, why not just give them the Serpent Cluster?"

Steele turned his harsh gaze onto him making Rhodes flinch. "The Serpent Cluster is too close to Earth, if we give them that it's just a hop skip and a jump to our front door step and we can't let them know where Earth is."

"They already know where Earth is, Steele." Deidre spoke up finally; she couldn't believe he'd forgotten how much the Yautja knew about them. It was one of the first things they learned in training.

"Of course you would know, Crab lover." He snarled rounding on her. "You're enjoying this aren't you? Watching them get the upper hand, you don't fucking care about what happens to humans all you care about is _them_."

She felt anger flood through her veins, the heat of it almost burning in its intensity, she fixed her steely gaze on him in her rage. How dare he say that she doesn't care about humanity?

"You're such a fool, Steele." Her voice was cold and harsh; her eyes hard as she took a sip from her drink again fighting to stay in control. "You may not agree with my actions or methods, but to question my loyalty to humanity is desperate and petty."

Steele growled at her insult, mute with fury almost breaking the glass in hand he'd picked up again. His words found him quickly though, as a light flashed in his eyes that made him seem almost insane. "You're the one practically throwing yourself at those _things_ like a bitch in heat. If I didn't know any better-"

Knowing where his tirade was going she cut him off her demeanor completely calm and collected, but she could feel herself slowly losing control the wall she'd developed being chipped away bit by bit.

"Exactly, you don't know any better. You're like a child constantly casting everything in black and white, conveniently forgetting about the shades of grey. So, take your head out of your ass and realize that whom I take to my bed is my business especially in times of peace such as now with the negotiations."

Her words hung in the air and even Steele found himself unable to come up with a complaint or comeback, although that didn't help with his anger.

"General-" Rhodes began in the silence that ensued, voice full of concern and caution as if she would turn her calm fury towards him.

"Enough Rhodes, General Steele's concerns although valid are flawed and he needs to remember his manners."

"You're people are fucking abominations," Steele spoke up once more finding his voice and turned to Jean-Paul. "Give'm the Bailen Cluster."

Everyone froze, and Deidre clenched her fists feeling her anger and irritation starting to become too much for her to control.

"But, that's the-" Rhodes began outraged and horrified.

Steele cut him off with a glare and wave of his arm clearly dismissing him. "Who cares if we forfeit whatever claim we have over that cluster? They can fend for themselves like they always have."

Deidre chose not to speak unsure if she could keep her temper in check as she tried to keep the red out of her eyes as the conversation carried on around her. She felt Rhodes's worried gaze on her, but Steele's voice overrode any sort of calming effect it might've had otherwise as he continued.

"They can use'm as sport, we all know how those fucking Baile abominations love sticking to themselves and have even banned human traffic through their territory. Considering all that wouldn't you agree that we don't have any claim over them and can easily invite our new 'friends' to hunt and colonize?"

Jean-Paul seemed thoughtful and his silence enabled her to speak her anger evident.

"You're racism seems to have clouded your judgment Steele, my people have fought and died with yours, partake in all the same benefits citizens enjoy, and some even hold positions in the government. You can't just say we consider ourselves separate when we limit traffic to protect others from those who haven't learned control. We're just as much a part of society as you are."

She turned her attention to Jean-Paul hoping that he would see Steele's madness, if they signed away her system they would divide humanity and risk losing to the united Yautja, not to mention flare up the racism that was hidden behind doors against Bailes. He remained silent and stared at her deep in thought.

"Jean-Paul…" She wasn't sure what else to say, but she found herself pleading for him to see reason.

"It would not benefit us to give up that cluster General Steele, General Finn is correct they are as much a part of our society as anyone else. Not to mention they're some of our best soldiers and provide a good buffer zone as well due to their defenses."

Diedre felt herself smirk as her body relaxed and Steele's eyes narrowed in irritation. Talk slowly fell into plans on how to proceed next with some of the Yautja's demands on hunting rights to certain locations within human space that they'd used previously and various other matters. Staring at the charts Deidre got an idea about concessions and pulled Jean-Paul to her side to show him her thought.

"If we concede these systems here," She pointed to the corresponding systems on the map and continued. "that will allow us to claim these Nebula's as a DMZ and boost defenses on our side as well as deploy a security net to detect cloaked ships, I believe some scientists on LB-8892 have been coming up with several prototypes for it as well."

Jean-Paul was quiet for a moment mind lost in thought before he nodded. "That would be the best and since you've spent quite a bit of time studying them which would be the best for their hunting?"

She didn't even need to take time to think about it and quickly pointed out the various planets that could be used for gaming reserves or otherwise that was within the systems and wouldn't give them the need to travel into human space for their Rites or hunts.

Several hours later they started to head to their various quarters to sleep and Deidre found Rhodes accompanying her.

They remained quiet as they walked slowly in silence, she could feel him wanting to speak, but waiting for everyone to disappear from the hall as they made their way to the lifts.

"Yes, Corporal?" She broke the silence as the lift doors closed as they felt it start to rise and they were finally alone.

"General, I don't understand why General Steele would suggest that." He blurted out almost as if he'd been keeping it in the whole time.

"He believes that my people should be eradicated as much as the Yautja simply because we're different, inhuman."

"Why does he think that? I mean, I know he's not very fond of you, but that doesn't mean he should hold a grudge against a whole race."

"He doesn't, he hates me and hates my people for two different reasons. He hates me because he doesn't understand my motives even if they were explained to him. He hates my people because his great grandfather decided to ignore the restrictions to the Baile Cluster and landed on one of our planets. He and his entire crew were killed."

The doors flew open and she walked forward towards her room ignoring the few Yautja loitering about the halls once again in various states of dress, pausing for a moment sensing that she was alone she turned around and saw Rhodes staring at her in shock before he shook himself out of it and rushed to her side as she continued.

"Why?" He voiced finally trying to wrap his head around the circumstances that could possibly lead up to such a fate.

"There was no reason." At his confusion she continued. "When they landed they had done so outside of one of the smaller camps where we train in isolation to control our emotions and more specifically our rage."

She paused glancing at him to see if she understood so far than continued. "They had angered the youths by disregarding the restrictions, and at their age they had just began their training so that small trigger was enough to make them violently murder the whole crew."

"Why did they enter the cluster?"

"I believe it was to trade, but the reason doesn't really matter the end result would've been the same." She felt a little embarrassment as she spoke realizing that it made her people sound like crazed animals.

"Is that why you always seem so controlled?" She nodded as they came to her door and she input the code inviting him inside as he passed in front of her to enter she saw in the corner of her eye a certain black Yautja standing silently in the doorway of his quarters nearby watching her. She paused uncertain of what to do, she realized that her attraction to him wasn't easy to hide since there was something about him that made her heart race and her mind fog in desire, and it interfered with her validity in the negotiations.

He didn't approach her, and she didn't blame him since she'd been avoiding him and every other Yautja she could, only seeing them while in talks. A part of her wanted to invite him in to get to know him, the selfish part that saw something they wanted, but rationale won out as she sent him one last glance and entered her quarters.

She was met with Rhodes's smirk as he made himself at home in one of her Spartanesk fur covered chair, ignoring him she sat down across from him making herself comfortable as well waiting for him to speak his mind.

"Why are you avoiding him?" He finally spoke up.

"I'm not here for that, Rhodes." He raised a brow at her response.

"That doesn't mean you can't pursue him on a friendly level, if you happen to fall into bed together then so be it."

"Felix, I'm not going through this again with you." Her voice started to harden taking on more of her Commander Tone. "I may find him attractive, but these talks are more important than my libido."

"General, forgive me for my bluntness but your libido doesn't get enough attention. A little alien love wouldn't hurt you."

The last thing she was expecting was her subordinate telling her she needed to get laid and it reflected on her face as Rhodes burst into laughter and got up going to the door.

"Deidre, you're my commander and my friend so I'm going to help you out here. Ignore Steele and the rest of them; they don't know you and they've had sex with more questionable people than can be counted. I doubt you getting boned by a Yautja will harm anything, besides the poor guy's been mutely pining after you."

At her confused look he smiled to himself and opened the door to reveal Cetanu still standing in his doorway eyes piercing Rhodes with something akin to jealousy but quickly softening when Deidre became visible.

Leaning in he whispered into her ear. "Deidre, remember you're not only a General, but a woman…and women have needs to."

Patting her back he turned down the hall whistled merrily to himself as he made his way back to his quarters hoping that she'd let down her walls enough to let Cetanu in.

As Rhodes left she turned her gaze onto Cetanu, he was puffing up again trying so hard to get her attention. She stared at him uncertain of what to do, Rhodes words ringing in her ear to indulge in the sinful temptation that was Cetanu. The urge to give in was strong, to use him and his body to get as much pleasure from him as possible, but as she looked at him she just couldn't do it. To give in to someone on such a level, to be so vulnerable was something she just couldn't do, being without armor, a weapon truly frightened her.

They sat there just watching each other, staring into each other's eyes, neither moved and she noticed that he seemed content to just stare at her most likely relishing in what little attention he was getting from her. Unbidden she found herself talking.

"If only you were human, than maybe things could be different." Her words were soft, almost inaudible, but he heard them.

"We're not that different." His voice was deep, and quiet like her own but easily heard and understood, his body grew intense and his gaze even more so although his voice was calm. She found herself feeling the urge to run to him, to close the distance in some way but wouldn't allow it.

"I know…but we're different enough to make whatever this is impossibility." She was surprised at how mournful she sounded.

"If there was peace?" She could hear the unspoken part of his question, if there was peace and no more need for her to give him a wide berth would she give him a chance? Her blue eyes were drawn straight to his face, and into his eyes as the silent seconds slipped into minutes.

"If there's peace." The words slipped almost unbidden from her lips, a hopeful phrase as she turned around to go back into her quarters.

"Then I will prove myself worthy until then."

Safe within her quarters Deidre went to her bed and sat dumbly on the edge desperately trying to rid her mind of the possibilities, no more loneliness, a partner who would understand her, and possibly someone she could be vulnerable to without feeling like she was going to end up with a knife in her ribs. Quickly she squashed the hope that was slowly rearing its ugly head, and proceeded to lie down on the floor and perform various exercises so that she'd be too exhausted to think about it.

She wasn't sure exactly how long she'd been exercising, but she stopped as a beep sounded from the door and Rhodes proceeded to run in with Jean-Paul. Dressed in only a standard issue tank and her underwear she stood and approached them grabbing her workout towel to wipe away the sweat she hadn't realized was there.

"What is it Corporal, Jean-Paul?"

"General, some of the men have started a fight in the cafeteria and-" Jean-Paul cut him off causing Rhodes to give him a slight glare but let it go.

"The President and Council have also sent word through our secured channels on the comms equipment I brought with me that you're to be picked up in a few hours to deal with a colony that's gone quiet, Steele's staying here with his men, your half is being replaced by his and your whole division will be meeting you on the ship."

She nodded ignoring Jean-Paul's red face and Rhodes waggling of his eyebrows at her appearance and looking out the doorway to see if Cetanu was looking as well which he wasn't much to Rhodes disappointment. Nodding her head she began to walk out of her quarters, irritation almost radiating off her frame, she had told them expressly not to fight and now she had to play mother.

"Wait, General, your pants!" Jean-Paul practically screamed in shock as she made her way towards the door.

"Get out." She commanded sternly, her eyes flashed making Rhodes shiver at the men's fates for disobeying her.

The eating hall or cafeteria as Rhodes called it was filled with the roars and cheers of both Yautja and human alike as two of her men stood in the middle of the formed circle bareknuckle boxing. She knew her men were fond of the old style fighting where two entered a makeshift ring and punched one another until someone blacked out; needless to say her medics got plenty of work. Usually she would find this humorous, but she had expressly forbid them from fighting and it made her blood boil for them to disobey her so outright.

"How long have they been fighting?" Her voice was calm, but the cool unemotional tone made Rhodes shiver in fear and the nearby crowd to start to give her a wide berth. She ignored the purrs of the Yautja as they attempted to appease her as she made her way to the center of the ring. The sound only made her even more riled up, she even vaguely recognized some of her other soldiers who were cheering start to slowly die down and try to hide behind some of the Yautja near them.

"About two hours now." Vaguely impressed for a moment her anger grew once more and she stopped quickly rounding on Rhodes lifting him up off his feed with one arm by his shirt.

"Why wasn't I informed sooner?" Once again she ignored the purrs of the Yautja nearest to her and kept her commanding gaze on Rhodes who shrunk under the weight of it.

"I told you as soon as I found out." Keeping her eyes on him for a moment she released him and turned on her heel and continued her way towards the middle ignoring Rhodes' small cry from being released so rapidly.

The fight started to escalate and one of the fighters was pushed into a youngblood who riled up by the fighting joined the fight as well, no one reached for him leaving him to his fate as they realized that now standing at ringside was Deidre.

This was exactly what she feared, that the fighting would escalate without them meaning it to. Quickly stepping forward taking advantage of the fighters concentration on each other she slammed both men's heads together violently breaking their noses and spun avoiding the punch of the youngblood and while within his guard grabbed his lower mandibles and bent them in a way forcing him to his knees to avoid the pain and her breaking them.

"You will stand down, now or I will make you." She spoke staring into the eyes of the youngblood daring him to challenge her, but her words speaking to her men as well. His muscles relaxed and he closed his eyes and let out a purr trying to both appease her and show her that he was standing down. Releasing his mandibles she nodding to him than walked over to her men and grabbed their ears violently dragging them after her as she made her way to the lifts to visit the medics.

Stopping for a moment she looked over her shoulder. "Rhodes, make sure that the men are packed and ready by 0600 and if they have any unpaid gambling debts that aren't within the unit that they fulfill them."

Continuing after seeing his node and ignoring the collective groan and the quiet blaming of individual members she was satisfied that they began to file out and head back to their quarters. Looking at her two captives in the lift she shook her head and released their ears than making them tilt their head back.

"Come on, we'll get those noses looked at." Meekly they nodded, feeling they'd been punished enough she shook her head at the both of them.

"I told you not to make me play mother, I don't want to constantly have to be wondering where you are and what you're doing. Next time, when I tell you not to do something, don't do it." Satisfied at their sheepish nods they walked made their way to the medic's quarters who didn't seem surprised at seeing their faces.

"Keens, make sure to be packed up by 0600, we've been reassigned, and that goes for you two as well." After seeing their accepting nods, and even the apologies of the two she shook her head with a slight smile on her face.

They smiled as she left, and as she made her way back to her quarters and stood in the doorway she looked over her shoulder at Cetanu's door and wondered if she should tell him she'd be gone before he woke up. She thought of his words again, and suddenly felt that she needed to tell him. Walking to his door she stood in front of it, hand above the doorbell of sorts staring at it. She suddenly felt nervous, like telling him she was leaving would mean something. No, she couldn't do that; she couldn't give herself the hope that she'd have someone waiting for her return, someone to miss her.

Slowly, she withdrew her hand and reassured herself she was making the right choice. People like her didn't get fairy tale endings or prince charming's, they died alone and broken, and she just had to accept that.

Yes, she just had to accept that.

Quietly she disappeared into her room and packed keeping her mind on the mission on hand and what it could possibly be.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note:**

**Thanks everyone for your reviews and once again I'm sorry for delays in my posting. I've just moved and joined school again so now sometimes when I get home I just don't have it in me to write, however that doesn't mean I haven't been trying. I understand a few of my reviewers don't understand my character's motives and thinks she's a traitor and to be honest I wrote her like that on purpose. I use this site to practice my writing and I'm trying a method of slowly revealing the character and drawing out action etc.**

**Also, another critique I saw was that it seemed like all humans were idiots etc, it was not my intent and I was merely using them to help contrast the differences between attitudes towards the Yautja, the President, Rhodes, and her soldiers were made for that purpose as well. I was trying to show how years of war can blind some/most people with hate because they can't get over grudges passed down through generations. **

**The Yautja aren't meant to seem perfect, and as I stated in chapter 2 when Deidre was first going onto the Yautja ship that most likely only the most behaved were allowed near the humans/on the ship. Also, as for catering to the Yautja, it was meant to be seen as extra steps to show them that this group of diplomats is serious and to help get peace both sides were extra courteous etc, I'm merely just showing the human side. **

**There was also confusion about chapter 1's burial incident, I thought I had wrote it well enough to show that she kissed the foreheads and such of ALL the deceased meaning both human and yautja. I wanted to reveal this again in chapter 3 but found that trying to clear that up went against her character so it'll be explained why she does that in a later chapter. **

**Also, this is 3****rd**** personal personal which means although I say she and her name it's basically Deidre's point of view which means her understanding of things are most of the only information you're getting. Thus, her prejudices and assumptions of the world as she knows it are the only thing you're reading. I attempt with dialogue and other characters to show you that she's flawed in that regard but it's who she is.**

**I hope that clears up any confusion and I will try better in future chapters to show this. However, I'm not an expert writer/author and I do extensive editing and some things may be accidentally edited out. **

**P.S. This story was inspired slightly by Romeo and Juliet as well if you couldn't tell.**

**On with the story! **

**Chapter 4: The Colony**

The departure was much quieter than expected; she was formally thanked by the Elders, especially the Ancient, for her presence and they prayed to see her again once peace was established. Shortly after that the shuttle departed to deposit her and her men onto the waiting Cruiser before returning to the Yautja ship.

The ride to LB-8892 was quiet and uneventful, in part due to the fact it takes three weeks to get there; not even the excitement of being a week out from the planet could save them from boredom. Luckily they seemed to get the idea that fighting wouldn't do them well before a mission, especially after she gave them their briefing.

The colony had gone silent after a power failure from the main science facility a few miles away, and when they had come up only hours later the only thing the comms picked up was static and breathing before all went dead completely.

She knew they were scared and were trying not to show it, but as they grew closer to their destination she could see their smiles start to vanish, their mannerisms change and eventually all went quiet. She wasn't one for speeches; she could give no words of encouragement as the dropship touched down onto the planet and the ramp started to lower slowly revealing the all too quiet colony. Walking out she took in her surroundings watchful of everything unsure if this was another attack done by the Yautja, sanctioned or not. Vaguely she recognized the various other dropships landing and dropping off troops, several hundred in total of her men were given to her for this.

Her body hummed for a fight knowing that soon they might be in battle. Doing a onceover on her men she signaled for them to go forward, helmets being placed on they followed her forward away from the ships that upon releasing their cargo flew back into orbit returning to the main ship. Turning to face them she called forward her officers with a signal of her hand, as they came around her she signaled for the others to remain vigil.

"What're your orders General?"

Deidre stood for a few moments quietly going over the blueprints they'd been provided and wordlessly handed each of her officers and Rhodes. As they reviewed them she took stock of her compatriots.

Captain Jose Ramirez was a short feisty man of Hispanic descent kept his black hair short, however he always seemed to have a rico suave effect about him and although his mouth tended to get him into trouble she'd never gotten any lip from him. He was stocky, but that didn't take away from him in any way and she'd seen more than one girl fawn over his chocolate eyes.

Captain Olivia Magnusson was a tall blonde with emerald eyes and a lithe athletic figure, but she was a quiet one and preferred to read and keep to herself than join in any of the raucous behavior of the troops or Cpt. Ramirez might start. She also didn't happen to see any of his longing glances either.

Major Derek Smith was an interesting man, he never spoke unless giving orders and reminded Deidre of her own father, the man was older than her by a few years and his short almost black hair was beginning to grey around the temples. He was attractive but in a much subtler way than Ramirez, and the only thing that ever broke him of his shell was when he went home to the flagship and saw his wife and daughter.

Lastly, she turned her gaze to her kin Aednat Cole, she was from Baile like herself but they couldn't be more different. Aednat broke tradition and married a non-Baile and moved to a colony outside the Bailen Cluster, the marriage and the move had ruined relations between her and the clan, but she was welcomed back every two years a requirement she never put off for anything unlike Deidre.

"Captains Magnusson and Ramirez I want you to take your men and cover the east and south wings, Major Smith and Cole; you'll cover the west and northern wings. I'll take my group to get the power back on in the basement level."

They had worked out group assignments during the trip and had even discussed various methods of searching the facility in the end they knew that splitting up was the best way and left the assignment of wings up to Deidre. When she saw them nod in acceptance she continued.

"I want to hear about anything suspicious and upload any files personal and otherwise you can get your hands up as well as any personal recorders or journals. Also, exercise caution we don't know if this was a Yautja attack or not and be careful of the experiments you come across some are volatile."

Putting on their helmets they nodded and pocketed their respective virtual map modules, and paper backup versions. Approaching the front entrance she motioned for her tech to hack the door as they waited nearby in cover, a few moments later the doors whirred open and they moved forward. Seeing the stairs to the lower level she nodded to her passing officers and motioned for her group to follow her.

The basement had several wings, but on a much smaller scale than the level above so she quickly divvied up her men to tackle the wings simultaneously quietly giving each section leader their orders as they separated. Finally, she was left with a section of about 50 and motioned for them to follow her.

The corridors were empty, but the walls and floors were filled with broken glass and various debris and the most unnerving part was the lack of bodies. If it were the Yautja, they would've left something behind, even blood but there was none.

Ignoring the uneasiness that was growing in her gut she kept her focus on her surroundings weapon raised, sweeping for threats as they passed rooms and hallways. Every room seemed devoid of life and even the various experiments seemed odd. Several rooms were filled with examination tables that were raised in a circle at the center of the room. Various medical tables nearby filled to the brim with needles and other such instruments and mechanical arms holding containers corresponded with each chair. At the far side of the room was a large window of glass that looked like an observation room judging from all the control panels.

The next rooms were filled with bizarre circular contraptions that looked like they were meant to hold some four legged animal, but what exactly wasn't showing on any of the data they were collecting. They gave references to something, but it was as if it had no name or description. As they continued to the last part of their section she saw a large door and motioned for her tech to hack the locked door hoping he would be more successful this time than with the others. Whoever had designed the security system was very good.

"General, Ramirez found something that I think you need to hear." Magnusson's soft voice came across the comms bringing Deidre out of her thoughts.

"Go ahead."

"_It's quiet now; I haven't heard any screams for a while. I can hear them…moving around sometimes, coming up from below. There's something else down there too, something…big."_

Deidre didn't have to look to see her men tense and start to pay extra attention to the dark around them. They needed that power up. Now.

"Well, that was comforting." Rhodes commented sarcastically.

"Let's get that power up."

"Agreed." Ramirez quipped through the comms.

Practically running towards the stations power plant she had her men fan out to clear the room and as soon as it was cleared they entered and set up a defensive not wanting to be lax for any reason. She took up by the door weapon lowered but ready as she stared down the hall for anything suspicious as her techs worked to get the power back up. The tense minutes slowly trickled by and as the lights began to turn back on and the power hum to life she sighed in relief and turned to face her men.

"Alright, let's finish sweeping this fl-" She stopped at her men's terrified faces weapons rising to point at her…no, behind her. A soft breathing hiss sounded behind her and brushed across the flesh of her neck causing the hair to rise and her instincts to scream.

"General!" Rhodes screamed and shot past her head into whatever was behind her causing it to screech. Spinning around she brought up her weapon and shot the creature in the midsection sending it backward screeching as every bullet pierced its flesh its blood spraying the walls and pooling around it. Soon it stopped moving completely and dropped to the floor.

Hissing surrounded it as they watched the floor and wherever the yellowish blood landed start to bubble and melt away. The back of her neck started to hurt and she felt like she was being burned. Crying out she raised her gloved hand to her neck and wiped whatever it was off than quickly tossed off her gloves as they started to smoke and hiss. Her neck still felt like it was burning and she barely recognized when Keens ordered someone to force her arms down away from her neck as he started to pour something on it.

Yelling started up all around her and gunfire followed subsequently but the burning was too intense she couldn't focus on anything else. It was as if someone had taken a hot poker to her flesh and was slowly working it into her. Ramirez's voice was blaring in her ear, asking what was wrong as shouts and alien screeches surrounded them.

A cooling sensation flooded her neck and her world started to come back into focus.

"Don't get their blood on you! It's highly acidic!" Keens shouted and put what felt like gauze on the back of her neck, the cool and a numbing sensation following. She nodded her thanks and noticed half of her gear was missing leaving her glad in only her standard issue top and under armor light vest. Looking towards Keens he wordlessly pointed to the various covered spots on her arms and a lump on her stomach she guessed was bandaged as well and the hissing, melting help of her clothes. How much had gotten on her?

"The pain from your neck disguised the rest; your back got the worst of it." Rhodes commented looking at her sorrowfully obviously blaming himself.

"I hadn't realized…" She was just stunned. No, she had to regroup with the others. Who knows how many of those things were out there. Staring at the black serpent-like corpses littering the hallway she counted about 30 and knew they were most likely outmatched.

"General!" Ramirez's voice cut through the comms. "Puta, es major que me responda!"

"Captain," She snapped ignoring the sigh of relief that came from him. "Watch your mouth."

"Always, mi querido general." Deidre rolled her eyes motioning for the men to follow her and they quietly left the room locking it behind them.

"I'm going to let that slip, but that's the last time I want you to call me your darling." He chuckled and she could hear her men, every single one of them trying not to laugh.

"Alright, everyone be on the lookout for more of those things. Captains, we're not alone; shoot anything that's not human."

They all spoke their agreement as she paused, thinking as her men surrounded her covering around them. The talks depended on the possibility of having those nets, and due to the top secret nature of the facility she doubted they had any transmissions or connections of their vital research to the interplanetary network. They needed the research or at least the ones they viewed as most vital, but first to regroup and decide if they would continue.

"General, all the wings up here are clear."

"Good, that means the issue is only down here. Everyone regroup with me at the security HQ down here." She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her virtual map display sliding it open and tapped the location marking it and quickly memorized the route sending the location to her captains and section leaders.

As they started out red lights started to flash and a voice sounded over the intercoms.

"Warning, Xenomorph enclosure compromised. Warning, Xenomorph enclosure compromised. Sealing off sublevel, all employees are asked to please evacuate. Sublevel quarantine in t-minus five minutes. All em-"

Cursing she motioned for her men to follow as they ran towards the stairs.

"Everyone get out of the facility, get to the drop ships! If you're on the sublevel, move it!"

The countdown rung in her ears as she lead her men towards the stairs and as they reached it she turned around weapon raised to cover them motioning for them to go up the stairs. As the last few men came up the corridor and towards the stairs she saw something move behind them in the dark. Trying to see around them with the light on her weapon she screamed at them to move faster.

A tiny glint caught her eye and she screamed at them to duck, as they threw themselves to the floor she fired off several short bursts causing the xeno's to fall back. Grabbing the downed man she dragged him and continued to fire as she made her way up the stairs.

One minute left.

She saw the doors were almost closed and cursed quickly letting go of her weapon letting the sling swing it to her side and grabbed the man with both hands throwing him through the gap watching in dread as it closed behind him.

"General!" She heard someone scream through her headset as she quickly brought up her weapon and fired at the xeno's that were stalking up to her by the door. She couldn't throw a grenade without killing herself in the process and as her back hit the door and her clip hit empty she found herself staring straight into an eyeless head hissing at her.

"Get the door open! Hold on, General we're coming!" She vaguely recognized them as the xeno's grouped around her. There was no use in trying to reload or fight, there was too many of them.

Deidre found she was angry, angry at the odds and angry that even going down swinging wouldn't happen with their proximity.

"I hope I give you the shits." She growled spitting at them. It hissed, lips curling back to show more of its silvery teeth, saliva dripping down as what looked like an inner mouth came out.

She was so focused on the mouth she never noticed the hand coming from the side. Crying out she dropped to the floor her weapon falling off her shoulder clattering away and her headset following it. Her vision was blurry and she fought to stay awake. Something in her told her not to give in to the dark as she tried to focus on the screams coming from the headset. A hand roughly grabbed her boots and adrenaline surged through her body making her scream as she tried to crawl away from the creature now dragging her down the hall.

It ignored her struggles and continued onward until it cried out in shock and pain as she kicked its hand forcing it to release her. Running went to retrieve her gun, but saw another xeno appear before it hissing at her. Changing directions she ran down another hallway all too aware that they were following her and slowly gaining. Turning a corner she cried out as one stood there and made a swipe at her. Without thinking she dropped to the floor managing to use her forward momentum to slide underneath it before jumping up again bolting down the hallway again. She had to think, had to come up with a plan to buy her time until her men could get to her.

The Security HQ, it had self-isolation protocols.

Remembering the map she turned the last hallway towards the HQ and ran in closing the door behind her locking it. Glancing around she quickly found the gun cabinet and armed herself and cleared the small room promptly sealing any doors. She thanked her luck for the blow torch on one of the desks and quickly looked away sealing the vents so that they couldn't be forced open but she could still get air. Unsure exactly how smart the creatures were she sealed all the doors and quickly situating herself at the consoles she set in the isolation protocols watching as the heavy blast shutters slid down over the windows on both sides.

Security, done. Now, comms. Her mind was on overdrive as her ears listened for any unusual noises, or any noises period that she wasn't making as her fingers flew across the keys trying to hack into the communications dish to use it to contact her men.

Error. Password not accepted.

Cursing she slammed her fist on the desk and without missing a beat she headed back to the gun rack and rummaged through the duffel bags at the bottom vaguely cataloging its contents.

Ammo, ammo, knives, grenades, grenade launcher rounds, MRE's, MRE's, water, ammo, water, water, knives. She let out a sigh of relief as she finally pulled out a small headset and quickly set it on the frequency she used.

"Rhodes? Magnusson? Ramirez? Can anyone hear me?" She was met by silence, she found herself praying that they hadn't been killed.

"Deidre!" Rhodes practically screamed causing her to cry out and almost rip out the headset.

"Keep your voice down Rhodes; you're going to make me deaf." He sighed in relief and sniffed, had he been crying?

"General, we thought you had been killed." Magnusson spoke up her soft voice relieved and also sounded tearful.

"Why does everyone sound like they'd been crying?" She asked truly not understanding why they sounded so strange. Did she really have that affect them?

It was Cole who answered, with what sounded like a tearful Smith in the background. Cole chuckled, but her voice sounded hoarse as well. "We thought they had killed you, General."

Deidre found she was uncomfortable, she had never had anyone crying over her and oddly she found herself disturbed by their tears so unused to it.

"Don't get sentimental." She huffed hoping her stern tone would bring them back to normality. "I don't die that easily."

They chuckled and even behind them the relieved laughter of her men causing her to fidget in her chair. If they would stop acting foolish they could get down to business. Honestly, did they have such a love opinion of her?

"On the contrary, we have a high opinion of you General." She blinked and cursed realizing she'd said that last part out loud.

"No need to get your panties in a wad, General." Ramirez laughed good naturedly obviously enjoying her discomfort at the affection.

Tuning out the teases from her Captains, her friends, she found her mind wandering to how to proceed further. Leaning back in her chair she hissed in discomfort at her burns, and feeling her back she felt the raised skin. As her hands delved towards the small of her back she froze feeling something small and metallic attached to the skin.

"Keens, did you put a monitor on me?"

"No, General."

The comms went quiet for a moment. "Why?"

Digging her nails into her skin she hissed as pain flared for a moment before she was rewarded with a sudden jerk of her arm as it released its hold from her back. Bringing it in front of her she turned it over in her hands, it was about the size of her palm and relatively smooth except for a small rounded top. It was blinking on the back and small tendrils wriggled for a few moments before stilling turning from red to grey than the blinking stopped.

"General?" Keens tried again. Deidre was quiet for a moment trying to think of who would have put such a device on her until she noticed familiar markings on the back and sighed in agitated relief.

"Cetanu."


	5. Chapter 5 real

**Authors Note: Hey everyone! My files were too corrupted to salvage, so I well...spent most of the week (after my homework and various other responsibilities of course) trying to recover/remember what I wanted to put down before. I'm still having issues with my computer, I got a virus or malware or something that's destroyed my computer so when I turn it off (or even when it's on) it has the chance not to turn on again or just randomly crash. Needless to say, I'll still write when I'm able but most of my energy is to get my computer up and running again since the local libraries in my area have suffered during the economic downturn and their hours and personnel were cut back to save money. I'm not giving up and your reviews have helped me keep faith in my writing and stories, and I apologize at the slowness sometimes life or severe writers block gets in the way or I get discouraged. Still working on that, but don't lose faith I haven't given up! Here's the real chapter 5 and I tried to make it longer as a way of saying sorry, but without Word (I had to write it through Hotmail and than re-purpose my previously uploaded authors note in order to post) I don't really know so hopefully it's long enough. Also, I hadn't tried to use Hotmail before mainly because my computer wasn't well...working and I've been spending literally weeks with techs having taken over my computer to try and fix it from my waking hour until going to sleep. I'm not that fast writing without a computer, ideas flow less but I managed to get enough on paper to get another chapter out. **

**Anywho, enjoy and please review! My itouch still works, without many problems lol. **

**P.S. Kalthar, thanks for your words and I don't know the story you mentioned so hopefully I don't have the same ending as them :x.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing cept myself and my ideas and I give props where they're due.**

**Chapter 5 - Losing Control**

When did he tag her? Her mind went over all their interactions, but they'd never touched or even gotten close enough to each other for him to put the device on her. That means...

"Son of a bitch tagged me in my sleep!" Her voice showed her shock and outrage at the possibility of him coming into her rooms at night and tagging her.

"Who?" Cole questioned her voice carrying an undertone of protectiveness, her exile from Baile made her relationship with Deidre extremely close she was the only kin she had left making her extremely protective of her friend.

"A Yautja that was made my personal bodyguard of sorts, but that was supposed to only be for the ship or at least that's what I had thought." Deidre stated thinking back on the conversation to see if she had missed something or maybe this was all about him proving himself as a worthy mate. She thought that it just had to do with hunting and showing trophies, did it entail more that she never picked up on?

"He wants to mate with you?" Cole gasped astonished. Deidre cursed obviously having said all that aloud without meaning to.

"Oh General! I didn't know you liked'm tall, dark, and alien." Ramirez teased causing Cole to burst into laughs, even the normally quiet Magnusson and Smith joined in, although in a much more muted fashion than their compatriots.

Ignoring them she brought her mind back to the matter at hand.

"Did you find the plans and prototype for the security net on the upper levels?" Her question brought them back from their hysterics and each cleared their throats to seem more business as usual.

"No, the upper levels mentioned very little about the experiment, in fact most seemed to be centered around whatever they were doing in the sublevel labs." Smith piped up, the first to recover.

"There were no hints at all as to where it might be, or if it wasn't moved off world?" Silence greeted her question for a moment until they slowly answered no having reviewed what they found.

"How about any information as to what they were doing down here? Or how they got those things?" Looking down at the security controls she almost cursed the machine for being so well protected. She knew hacking wasn't her strong point and the firewalls they had were extremely complex.

Muted voices filtered through the comms periodically as each officer reviewed their findings and tried to retrieve something useful to present.

"Magnusson, have someone hack the system to get that door opened. If you have to use the engineers to torch through it."

Taking in her surroundings as Magnusson sent out her orders she sighed, she felt like she was in a cage being stared at through glass. In a way, she felt more cornered now than when they had her pinned at the doors. She'd effectively sealed off all entrances, but also any way to escape. Her only worry was if they suddenly developed the ability to ram down thick steel doors.

A thud rang out in the enclosed space making her bolt from her chair. Pulse rifle up she scanned the room for any damage or indications of any kind that her haven had been compromised. Unable to find anything she took her seat back at the desk and began rifling through it's contents, as she opened another drawer she came across several audio logs and grabbing a few she splayed them across the desk and brought one up and played it.

_"No one knows what the hell is going on, or where these things came from. Trying to restore power here to increase our chances."_ The man sighed in the recorder and continued. _"Five will get you ten those assholes dug up something they shouldn't have." _

Deidre furrowed her brows. 'Dug up? There wasn't supposed to be any digging here.'

Putting that one to the side she picked up another log and hit play. _"Everything we do here hands by a thread, but the potential returns are vast. If we can harness these creatures we can solidify human dominance. Every colony, every spacecraft, every Yautja would crumble under us."_

Deidre shuddered, she grew pale and found her hands shaking as she realized there was more to this mans logs. He sounded so sure, completely confident in his ability to turn those things into biological weapons and the fact that they were trying this at all made her sick. What was he thinking? Did the Council know? Maybe the security net wasn't here at all, maybe...maybe this _was _the net. Why bother trying to find cloaked ships when you can just eradicate any threat that lands or inject those things into a ship like one would poison. If she could slip onto one of their ships than...the possibility of such a thing made her almost vomit. The quiet over the comms was enough to tell her that her men had heard the information, or at least her officers. They remained quiet, now even through the radio she could tell they were tense, and even knowing this information might've put them all in danger.

Starting the next log she made sure her mic only reached her officers. _"This species has demonstrated that humanity's ruthlessness is nothing. Mankind legislates and debates allowing rage or compassion to clip our winds; the xenomorphs have no such weaknesses."_ It was short, and she found herself unable to stop herself from playing the next one dread filling her.

_"The xenomorphs essence is a reduction to a universal truth: Survival through merciless necessity. They are uncompromised by remorse or pity. I admire them, I strive to emulate them."_

Deidre swallowed her throat suddenly dry. This man was insane, completely insane. The next entry seemed to glare at her and she steeled herself for it's contents. She had to know what they were doing here, everything they were doing...even if she didn't want to.

_"I remember all those years ago a tiny jumping spider, smaller than a lentil, it turned and watched me. I wonder what's going through your tiny mind, with some dread I suppose the xenomorphs ask themselves the same question about us."_

If he felt that way, even with his level of insanity...how intelligent were these xenomorphs? If they were sentient, intelligent, than how on earth did they get them in the first place. Playing the next message she hoped to find some sort of answer.

_"I have been born of such delicate material; I need to evolve, to become as irrepressible as you. Imagine what I might become...Your biology went into Hunter technology, a new paradigm in the universe." _

Wait...Her mind worked in overdrive as she quickly rifled through her memories. Yes, she remembered sneaking into temples on the main Clan ships and seeing murals of Yautja with something else...gasping she realized what it was. Kainde Amedha, they had found and _were _breeding the serpents! Remembering the name brought back all of what she'd overheard and learned they were vicious, extremely intelligent prey that made even the yautja pause. They were used in the Rite of Passage, into adulthood, for gods sake the very Chiva was meant to kill the weak and raise up the strong! These were not creatures to be messed with, even the yautja knew that and went to extremes to prevent any accidents. Grabbing a nearby bag she threw the logs from the drawers into it as well as any others she'd been given when they swept the rooms, and as she threw the last one into the bag she heard a voice, different from the one before flood the room originating from the very bag itself.

_"Nature creates beauty in many forms, and you 6...you are the most beautiful of all. I shall break you, 6. Bend you to our purpose; humanity is the new power in the universe."_

"General?" Rhodes quiet voice broke through the dead silence.

"Rhodes, I want that door open and I want it open now." Her tone left no room for speculation or questioning and he quickly set out to finish the last cuts on the door.

"Smith, take your group and fall back with Magnusson and secure the drop ships. I want them to remain in our control at all times, I have a feeling these things aren't trapped on this level with me and might be making their way there to prevent our escape. Ramirez, you will secure that door and let nothing get past you. Cole, once that door is open I want you to head to my position and bring the best hacker we have and a large drive to transfer any data from this station. I have a feeling this place was never working on a security net, and if it had been that it had recently been moved to another base."

They rang out their acknowledgement as another pounding came on the main door to the small room. Throwing the bag onto her back she hoisted up her gun fixing it on the door as the banging continued, the metal starting to groan and give into whatever force was striking it on the other side. Growling to herself she felt her heart start to raise and her blood scream for violence, to tear something, anything, apart.

"General, we just got through the door and are making our way to you what's going on?" Cole asked sounding anxious for her friend, but excited for a fight. A true Baile.

"Something's breaking down the door, assume hostiles and keep on the lookout they're quieter than you think."

"Remind me to go home after this, I'm losing it." Her voice sounded strained and bloodthirsty, Deidre knew she only had a matter of time before her control would slip.

The door finally caved, a large horned serpent pushed through tossing the remnants of the remnants of the door to the side as it stopped just a few feet away from her. It looked like the others, large black body with spines coming up from the shoulders and sightless elongated face, but it's structure was more built, stocky and the large forward curving horns made it seem more like a bull. It screeched at her, it's body tensing in preparation to charge again. Deidre crouching slightly preparing jump aside as the pulled out her sword, silently she thanked her people's forethought to make it impervious to acids with a special coating on the durable metal. They stood stock still for a moment before she caught the glint of another xeno looking like the others from before except slightly larger and deadlier looking coming to flank her. Before she could react it jumped at her screeching knocking her down to the ground and snapping its jaws, both of them, at her face and neck trying to kill her, it's hands holding her down and as she moved to avoid its jaws she cried out narrowly missing its swinging tail that was trying to predict where her head would appear next. Cursing she released her sword and threw up her hands forcing its head to the side and began punching the side of the neck with as much force as she could hoping it was hitting the veins or some sort of pressure point. Alien screams rewarded her making her smirk as the creature tried to get out her gasp to gain the upper hand, its tail swinging striking around her as she hid her body underneath it to avoid getting hit.

A roaring screech from the side was the only warning she got as the bull alien surged forth, acting quickly she lifted her legs and thrust the one pinning her towards the bull rolling out of the way grabbing her sword as she narrowly missed being trampled. Screams filled the room as the one she'd tossed fell onto the bulls horns dieing slowly as its entrails fell to the floor making the metal hiss as it slowly died. Jumping to her feet she wasted no time in getting to the side of the bull before it could recover from goring its compatriot and slamming into the other wall and swung down her sword beheading it. Hissing was the only noise that filled the room as the blood ate away at the metal and the bulls body hit the floor with a resounding thud it's head and the gored one stuck to the wall.

Her blood singed though, singed at the glory, thrilled at the adrenaline that coursed through her veins, and the ache for more to fight, to kill was almost physically painful. She released a groan and doubled over arms wrapping around her waist, it hurt so much, she needed to kill, she needed to hear the screeches of death surround her, to see the blood of her foes spray the ground. She needed it, craved it, it was like a drug. Her vision started to flood to red as a hiss came from torn doorway, two, three, four...they flooded into the room trying to corner to like they had before.

Deidre could hear the calls of Cole over the comms, but her mind was somewhere else. Vaguely she was aware of her voice as she spoke, she didn't even sound like herself, her mind seemed to flood away her body seeming to take over.

"Tá mé scriosta, tugann do bháis orm na críche sin, Fothaí do chuid fola mo ocras, agus tá mé mar sin ocras." Her native tongue flowed from her mouth as she remembered the ceremonial words her father taught her, the signal that the mind had fled and the Berserker had taken over. (I am destruction, your death gives me purpose, your blood feeds me, and I'm so hungry.)

"Fuck!" Cole shouted anger, worry, fear plagued her at the words. "Kill them all, we have to get to the General. Keens, prepare a sedative and make sure it's enough to take out an elephant."

Deidre wasn't aware of anything after that. Her vision was read, blood roared through her ears making hearing almost impossible as she roared charging at the oncoming serpents. Claws, bites, bladed tails, they came at her in all directions and her body fluidly dodged, parried, and ignored any hits that managed to land. The first had come at her from the left its compatriots waited only a few seconds before jumping at her as well. Spinning out of the way of the first she deftly swung the sword down slicing its head clean off, ducking as the second narrowly missed her head she jumped to the side out of the way of the third as it came flying past her. Her hand flew out grabbing one of the spikes she forced it savagely to the ground next to her and using her knee to hold it down she snapped its neck effortlessly. She felt the air move more than heard the next attack as the other came at her, rolling forward she narrowly missed the tail as it struck its kin. Turning on her heel she crouched growling at it as it snarled back at her, they circled each other for a moment taking in every fluctuation, every twitch of a muscle that might discern where the next move would come from.

"Deidre, troid é!" Cole screamed through the comms, but it sounded like just noise. Her mind was gone, her body singed for battle she was in Heaven. The smell of burning metal, the angry hisses and indignant screeches from the creature before her fed a long repressed part of her. A moan passed her lips, she never felt so alive, she could feel everything.

It was glorious.

There, the movement of the aliens muscles gave it away as it charged forward thinking it had the upper hand. She saw the move and met it halfway letting loose a challenging roar of her own as it threw itself at her its alien cries echoing in the room. She caught its hands forcing it to stop in midair, it recovered quickly standing before her tail switching looking for any opening to attack and trying to maintain balance as their hands remained locked both struggling for the upper hand. It seemed surprised by her strength, her ability to with seeming ease keep it at bay, avoiding making any openings for its wriggling tail and any attempts to strike at her with its mouth failed. It hissed, thick saliva dripping from its jowls as it's prey hissed right back and as the mouth opened to loose its inner jaws Deidre headbutted its chin just as its inner jaw lashed out at where her head used to be. The force was enough to bite its own jaw completely through, using the shock and pain to her advantage Deidre twisted it to the ground somehow avoiding getting any blood on herself and quickly broke the creatures arms, the whipping tail thrashed about almost finding its target a few times. Twisting around she grabbed the thick tail towards the middle and reaching up used her grasp to get the bladed end and force it into the chest of the wriggling creature underneath her. Jumping off to avoid any splatter, she quickly recovered her sword and wielded it tightly in her grip. The room was utterly destroyed and the pack on her back had miraculously stayed in place and seemingly intact.

Her body still wanted a fight, but she wasn't unscathed, the aliens had managed to land quite a few blows and she was bleeding enough to make her feel weak and all the movement was aggravating her earlier injuries. Dropping to one knee she felt the weakness come over her as she tried to catch her breath and she kept her senses open for any other dangers. The high of battle was fading, and she felt a sliver of sanity coming over her and she grasped at it with desperate fingers. She needed to think, to be rational and controlled, if she lost it now she was dead. Trying to control her breathing she managed to fight it off, the red madness retreating slowly almost painfully so as her mind came back to her.

The aches and pains intensified as the madness left and she moaned in pain leaning against the desk nearby to prevent from falling over. The blood loss was worse than she had thought, and she could feel wetness trickle down her back slower than sweat and she wondered if the wounds on her back were bleeding as well. Her vision was starting to blur and everything seemed to slow down.

"Cole, I'm fine...but I've lost a lot of blood." Her words were slurred and slow, even talking was becoming difficult. "We need to leave." The simple sentence came out almost painfully so, as if she had to reach deep within herself in order to find the strength to talk. She slumped to the ground, unable to hold her own weight and the pack, even her sword although she clutched it desperately in her hands had become too heavy.

"Just hold on, Deidre. I sent someone ahead to take care of you, we're meeting heavy resistance back here." Cole's words were comforting even as the background was full of cries both human and alien. She could hear Ramirez join her and shouting orders to his men cursing occasionally in Spanish.

"Hold Cole, we've got backup!" Ramirez shouted and new weapons joined theirs the sound different and tiredly Deidre found herself unable to think of what could make that sort've noise. Had they been here so long that another team had been sent? Surely it had only been a day. Nothing was making sense to her mind, she couldn't concentrate and soon she found herself not even trying to.

Soon the cries on the comms started to end and she could hear triumphant cries that were close to deafening.

Footsteps, her foggy mind heard them and struggling she pushed against her arms to lift up her head from the floor. Everything was so hard, how much had she lost? Looking up she found herself staring at the doorway, a large figure standing in the way, large black. It was coming for her, she was going to meet her end. Shaking her head she snarled and managed to get shakily to her feet, holding up her sword in weak hands she stared at the figure that was becoming harder to see in the doorway.

"I won't go down that easy." She managed to say before she summoned up the last of her energy charging forward and thrusting her sword forward using her body and speed to help move the blade along.

It never met flesh.

Before she could recover the sword was thrown from her hands and she found herself crushed against the large black form, it was emitting a growling purr from its soft, yet resiliently hard skin. It felt different from the ones from before, and the sheer strength it as it wrapped one of its limbs around her keeping her arms pressed between them and it leaned to the side picking up her sword and putting it in the sheath on her back. This made no sense, what was this creature? Shaking her head she fought to see what was in front of her, but everything was so blurry. Moaning in pain, she found any strength in her body seem to flee her like it knew something she didn't. The figure picked her up, cradling her against it easily with only one arm as its other seemed to take things from the dead bodies in the room. It tore the alien bull head from the wall shaking off its gored fellow before swiping the horn across the neck of the other forcing the head off the gored ones shoulders. Tossing both heads one at a time into a sack on its side it continued to take the heads of the rest easily cutting them off with a knife in its hand that she hadn't realized it'd taken out.

Sudden curiosity filled her as she rested her cheek against its warm body feeling its skin with her hands that were pinned between them. Its scent filled her nostrils, a spicy musk with the faintest hints of something warm like cinnamon or chocolate. It was an odd pleasurable mix and she hummed in appreciation enjoying the calming scent, her cheek resting against its chest. In moments it was done with collecting the heads and after shifting her further up its chest so her head was closer to its shoulder and its free arm after putting away the knife she vaguely recognized it was wearing some sort of armor, and its body as covered in a warm fine mesh. Deidre couldn't find the strength to care though, she couldn't think and she felt so cold. At least if she was going to die, she'll be warm in her final moments. The body seemed to start vibrating she found it comforting and sighed happily as the vibrations went through her body tearing her mind away from the cold numbness encroaching on her and seemed to dull the edge of her pain.

"We got the General, she's pretty bad. Lost a lot of blood, our drop-ships aren't equipped with any sort of medical bay she's going to have to go back with them." Keens said informing the others, there were other voices and sounds that came to her ears as she felt the fresh outdoor air come across her skin. Her eyes drooped closed, but her ears were still open, she felt everything every burn cut, bruise, but most of all she felt the comforting warmth. She hardly felt it when the bag was taken from her shoulders.

"We got a pack from General Finn, everyone get into the dropships clear them first just in case and we'll nuke this place from orbit. Whatever importance it had is null and void now." Cole commanded her voice strained and tired.

The roars of engines soon met her ears only to be silenced moments later by a quiet mechanical hiss. Soft footfalls on metal grates filled with soft voices, so alien came next. She hissed in pain crying out as she was laid out onto something cold, tears came to her eyes, her back hurt so much! Her mind came back to her as if drenched in cold water, gasping and jumping off of the cold metal surface she grabbed a knife from her belt wielding it ready to attack anything that was a threat.

Purring met her ears and she finally took in her surroundings. She was on a Yautja ship, a small one meant for small parties and from the looks of the room she was in a medical bay. Two tall figures were on the other side of the table, the smaller of the two was reddish brown in coloring with stripes along his hide, tan stomach, chest, and parts of his face peaked out from under open parts of his armor. In his hands were needles filled with a blue substance, he seemed to be watching her warily unsure whether or not she was in her right mind. Looking over at the other she recognized him immediately, in his full armor she finally registered that the one she had attacked, who had taken care of her, saved her, and was trying to help her was the one she'd avoided for so long.

"Cetanu." She said his name with such fondness she almost surprised herself, she'd touched him, felt his warmth, and felt so safe in his presence. He purred in response stepping forward unafraid and gently took the knife from her hands. Without thinking she wrapped her arms around him, there was no hesitation as he drew her closer to him and picked her up effortlessly setting her on the examination table. Holding out one of his hands he was wordlessly given the needle and looked at her his eyes asking silently for permission. Nodding she rested her forehead against him letting one of her hands run over the bare skin of his arm that was on her hip. Hand to forearm she ran her hand over his skin as if to memorize him. She found herself not caring how it looked or how it might effect negotiations. Anything outside of that moment she pushed from her mind just to focus on the now.

Deidre hissed in pain as the thick needle pushed into the skin of her arm and unconsciously she gripped his arm harshly to try and relieve the pain. She felt his mandibles brush through her hair as he purred, it was comforting. As the contents of the blue medicine flushed throughout her system she found it easier to move, the sluggishness that had plagued her was rapidly disappearing and she felt more herself.

A blush covered her cheeks as she felt more her usual self and at the feel of Cetanu's hands on her skin, even something as innocent as putting healing gel over her acid burns made her shiver in pleasure. Perhaps Rhodes was right, maybe she had focused so much on others that she'd forgotten she had needs too. Looking up at his face, she found herself suddenly unable to breathe, he was so handsome, the pure blackness of his skin and dreads and the startling bright eyes his amber orbs were flecked with specks of blood red and emerald green. An unusual combination that was breathtaking. He puffed up under her gaze and she found herself smiling and let loose a small laugh, he pretended to remain ignorant of her attentions, but his muscles flexed under her hands as they wandered over his arm and chest.

It wasn't passionate, it wasn't confessions of love, it was comfortable...and it suited them.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello my darlings! Enjoy your new chapter and I got a beta! Everyone say thanks to Khalthar!

- Mortisha Bloodfang

**Chapter 6 - Sharing**

He continued to attend to her wounds in relative silence, his hands dutifully working as the various gels and shots dulled her pain and knitted her skin together. Adrenaline and blood loss gone and combated she struggled to keep her eyes open. The stress of everything fell away as she finally let herself relax.

Strong arms wrapped around her to carry her, the movement jostling her awake. She wasn't even aware she'd started to drift off.

"Rest, we're following your ship back to the Clan ship."

She furrowed her brows. "Why so slowly?"

"You need to rest." He stated gently as he entered a nearby room, showing her the code before putting her on the bed.

"I'll be fine with a good nights rest, there's no need for us to delay. Not after what I found out." Her mind starting to wake up as she thought of the evens on LB-8892.

He ignored her, just laid a hand on her shoulder and forced her to lay down.

"Rest." He reiterated, releasing her shoulder he moved to one of the chairs at the small table near a metal shield. Pressing a button he opened the shield revealing a large floor to ceiling window. Sitting down he poured himself a glass of dark liquid from a large metal pitcher and drank quietly looking out into space.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure you rest." Tone leaving no room for argument on the matter.

Sighing she rolled her eyes undoing her bra under her tank tossing it to the foot of the large bed, pants, and socks following soon after leaving her only in a tank and panties. Climbing under the fur covers she tried to sleep, but her mind wouldn't stop running. Any thought from the mundane, like where the rest of her clothes and boots were; to how the situation on LB-8892 will effect the future.

The logs bothered her, but not as much as the possibility that something more sinister was going on in the background. Those things, she needed to know more about them. Vague recollections of images and stories would only go so far, she needed to know her enemy.

Turning on her side towards him she watched him quietly, taking in every detail. The furniture, spartan in design, seemed to scale with his size. His weathered armor seemed to speak volumes about him. Worn, but diligently almost lovingly repaired and polished. Sparsely decorated, simple elegant design that was unique and it seemed to make the eye glaze over it to focus on other things. Deadly mistake she realized she'd fallen for. Small writing on the helmet resting on his hip depicted his rank.

Arbitrator.

Despite herself she started to laugh drawing his attention to her, head tilted to the side curiously, clicks questioning.

"How could I miss that you're an Arbitrator? I should've known." Who else could have the ear of an Ancient so easily? Track her with such readiness, ease, and have the ability to pursue?

He rumbled in amusement. "You weren't looking."

Shaking her head she smiled at her own foolishness.

"How did I miss you when I first arrived?" Mentally scolding herself. She wondered if he'd been standing there in front of her the whole time.

"You were more focused on your diplomat." Tone amused as he recalled the incident.

Groaning she realized he really had been in front of her the whole time, and it didn't help that he had been witness to the almost disaster. Thinking back to her thoughts on his armor she found herself wondering something as she looked at him again. The room fell into quiet again, comfortable, but she couldn't sleep still. She wanted to know more about him, sighing she sat up running her fingers through her hair and got out of the bed wrapping the fur blanket around her and sat across from him. He poured her a glass as she sat down making her smile thanking him as they both turned to look out the window sipping the strong alcoholic c'ntlip.

"Your armor." She began once again turning his attention to her. "You designed it to force the eyes to ignore it."

It wasn't really a question, but he nodded in response anyways making her voice what she really wanted to ask. "Have we met before?" 

His lack of response spoke volumes before he actually answered nodding slowly.

"How many times?" Question soft, but it rang in the room as if she'd shouted it.

"Dozens of times." His voice was far off and something else. Fond? Loving? Surprised?

Silence settled in almost suffocating. Dozens?

"When was the first?" Mandibles pulled into a small, almost imperceptible smile at her question.

"Seven years ago."

Seven years ago? The only thing that came to mind was when-

"The Elder." She gasped out. He nodded, amusement rumbling filled the quiet.

"You killed him on my watch, and left before anyone knew what was happening. I managed to catch up with you before you stole one of our ships, but I underestimated your speed."

She remembered now, she'd made it to the docking bay and tripped the alarm while trying to bypass the security clamps on one of the small singular ships. A large Yautja got there shortly after with what sounded like a few dozen trailing not far behind. The Elder had done a number on her when she'd been acquiring tactical movement information, so when she was interrupted again in the docking bay she wasted no time in releasing the clamps. The Yautja, she knew now was Cetanu, had descended on her shortly after forcing her away from the ship. The fight had been short, she'd managed to dodge his blows and pull out her sword slashing deeply across his left thigh forcing him to kneel narrowly missing his blades gutting her. Using the opportunity she'd kicked him savagely in the chest forcing him back into nearby crates. Taking advantage of his being temporarily stunned she tied him up in the crates netting before bolting back to the ship entering the entry code she'd pilfered while getting the tactical plans. In no time she'd started up the ship and left at full speed cloaked through the bypassed bay doors.

"You stole my ship." His words brought her back from the memory.

"That was your ship?" She asked incredulously, a blush creeping up on her. He only nodded making her flush more.

"Sorry." She murmured unsure what else to say, but he dismissed it laughing.

"Now I feel bad for crashing it." She confessed truly feeling contrite now at the fate of the ship.

Cetanu burst into raucous laughter, head thrown back in his mirth.

"It was new." He managed.

"That would explain the strange controls." Face flushed in embarrassment as he lost himself in laughter again.

"You must've been upset." His laughter calmed as she spoke, but he still practically vibrated in amusement.

"I was, I spent a great deal of time tracking you after that. Found you over a dozen times each year, but every two years you seemed to disappear for a few months only to reappear later."

To say she was impressed was an understatement, Deidre had been all over, her assignments and various battles had been numerous making tracking her rather difficult with the amount of moving and secrecy. For him to say he'd tracked her successfully that often, for that long was just impressive. She wasn't surprised that he hadn't been able to track her back to her planet. The only question that came to mind was why?

"Did you want to kill me that badly?" She tried to think of all the opportunities he had to take her out, but she stopped herself short. He purred to her comfortingly sensing her change in mood.

"I stopped being angry after the second time I saw you." His words confused her.

"Why? I don't understand."

"Two months after you killed the Elder, I managed to find you again on one of our colonies, you had taken it in the early morning after Paya's Light."

She remembered that incident as well. "I knew the majority of the colony would be sleeping after that."

Paya's Light was a festival that heralded the coming of their god before she left with her lover The Dark Warrior, after an entire day and night of celebrations she knew it was a great way to take control with as little bloodshed as possible since more would be incapacitated and the guards would be light. The sentries had been easy to overpower taking the colony prisoner in a matter of minutes. Her officers took great care to keep a tight rein on her men to ensure nothing happened to cause an incident. Although Yautja primarily lived on ships, many planets in their systems were dedicated to settlements due to the preference to raise their children for the first portions of their life on solid ground before they left for ships. The particular colony Deidre took over was such a settlement, but they also served to develop the fighting skills of youths before they participated in the Chiva. It's significance was not wasted on her now or then, but she wished that she had asked a few more questions before just following orders.

"It was the best way to take the colony without any bloodshed, not even the sentries died." She recalled continuing. "Orders were to take the base and I did without question."

She fell silent, falling into the memory.

She'd disarmed every one of the colonists and separated them into small manageable groups in case they decided to escape or fight back. She wasn't heartless though, they were given all the luxuries she could offer, food, water and even medicine if they needed it. Women and children remained together, even mated pairs were kept together. Deidre made sure they were all treated humanely.

"Where were you lurking?" She asked, curious.

"Started on the walls, but after seeing your treatment of them I moved closer to observe you."

"You were basically behind me the whole time?" Now that was hard to believe, but he nodded surprising her further.

"I wanted to know my prey, and if you had proven dishonorable in any way I would've torn out your spine."

She should've been afraid or even wary, but the image made her laugh. It wasn't funny, not even his words, but it made her laugh anyways. Perhaps it was his tone that amused her, but she couldn't say.

"Well weren't you disappointed." She quipped making him chuckle.

Turning serious after a moment she continued. "Did I surprise you when I disobeyed their order?"

"Yes." His answer was simple,filled with many emotions. Humbled, thankful, relieved, and so many others.

"I can still remember when they contacted me the next day. Amazed at my skill, thankful for my service, but all their platitudes couldn't make up for what they wanted me to do." She cut herself off not wanting to finish it. Taking a large gulp of the strong drink she tried to forget the eager faces of some of her men; how the women tried to shield their children as if knowing what their fates were going to be.

War was an evil thing, it turned normally gentle hearts, into twisted echoes of their former selves. Her commanders, her superiors who once were honorable fellows held nothing in their hearts now but contempt. The war had done much to twist them, and even more she knew she was unaware of with the severity of their orders.

"No one deserved that fate." She finished keeping her voice as neutral as possible.

Cetanu stayed quiet, but he hummed his agreement reaching across the table and grasped her hand in his running his thumb over her skin. "You let them go." He practically purred.

She laughed, but the sound came out joyless. "Yes, yes I did."

"They were safely relocated." He assured her, hoping to put her mind at lease.

Smiling thankfully at him she took another swig of her drink which he wordlessly refilled with his own. Quietly they enjoyed each others company as they drank, holding hands across the small surface.

The alcohol was starting to take effect and she felt tiredness seep into her almost bone deep. Her lips loosening due to its effects.

"Tell me why you want me." He turned to her in surprise clicking curious. "And don't tell me it's because I'm strong."

He was quiet for a moment, enough to make her aggravated. Was that all he saw in her?

"You _are _strong, but that's not all you are." He started looking at her meaningfully, "You're you."

She raised her brow at the last part making him chuckle. "You're many things, but in the end what I want is you. All of you."

That made her blush, she had expected him to list qualities he surprised her, but she was wary as well.

"I'm not perfect, Cetanu. I make mistakes, have regrets..." She trailed off watching his expression. She wasn't perfect, and she had many regrets but the one thing she didn't want was someone who put her on a pedestal. "The last thing I need is to have yet another standard set for me that I can never achieve."

Her words made him laugh puzzling her as to what was funny. She'd been serious, and sensing her confusion and rising ire he stood and brought her to him easily picking her up and bringing her to the bed again making her lay down. He didn't seemed bothered by her agitated expression, he just simply stripped himself out of his armor laying it almost carelessly on the floor before joining her now flushed form completely bare.

Forcing the fur from around her he laid it over them and used his strength to gently coerce her closer. She eyed him questioningly and he merely chuckled, mandibles pulled into a smile as he pressed her against him so they faced each other.

"I don't want General Deidre Finn." He spoke softly, nuzzling her making her calm down. "I want you, Deidre."

Deidre still wasn't sure, she wasn't sure about him, about a possible them. Could he handle her? Was he truly okay with just broken, worn down her?

Cetanu loosed a rumbling purr making her body vibrate, and it forced her mind back towards him. Gently he took her hand and laid it over one of the large scars on his chest making her trace it.

"When I was just an unblooded youth I challenged an Honored Warrior in anger. He pierced me, almost killing me with his ki'cti'pa when I charged at him."

Moving her hand to a large scar running down his right thigh he spoke again. "I lost half of my men under my first command against one of your military bases."

He moved her hand to a series of small scars across his stomach and chest that seemed to be from a type of shrapnel. "I didn't check for traps while clearing one of your captured ships."

Bringing her hand up to his mouth he rubbed his mandibles across her knuckles softly, akin to a kiss. "I have made mistakes, I still make them, and I have many regrets."

His eyes sought hers and she found them strangely vulnerable. Here he was, trying to show her he understood how she felt and to waylay her fears by revealing his failures. Revealing that he felt the same, that despite any image he has he is still fallible. With the same gentleness he showed her, she stripped off the rest of her clothes leaving herself just as vulnerable and bare as he had to her and laid his hands upon her scars revealing herself to him.

A jagged scar ran across her chest, from her right shoulder down to just a little below her left breast. "My first hunt, I failed to listen to my teacher and was gored by my quarry. I almost didn't survive."

Shifting his hand to one just above her navel it slashed across her stomach as if to gut her. "My first command, I was defending a base and didn't properly distribute my men to cover all sides. We were flanked and slaughtered, I was almost gutted by the time our backup arrived."

Moving his hand again she made it rest on two parallel scars that seemed much older than the rest on her right side. "One of my first infiltration jobs, I was interrupted when getting tactical information by an Elder and managed to kill him only to be taken by surprise on the brink of escape."

He chuckled as she smiled and shifted her hand to another scar on his thighs. "An Elder died while I was aboard his vessel and waiting for my new ship. I almost stopped the culprit from escaping." He jested right back making them both laugh.

"I guess we're not so different after all." She said as their laughter died down. He hummed in agreement bringing her closer seeming to just enjoy her proximity. Closing her eyes she lost herself in the feel of him, his skin, his warmth and ran her hands along his arms and chest as he did her arms and back. Their hands exploring, comforting, seeking solace in the understanding they found in the other. This shared moment lasting forever in her mind, she started to drift off and vaguely realized as her mind lay on the precipice of unconscious sleep that he might leave. Now that he was so close, after sharing so much, she didn't want him to.

"Don't leave." She murmured sleepily.

His body shook with purrs and checked laughter as he nodded. "Okay."


End file.
